AIMG BQ admitted in Court that it underpaid two event
co-ordinators a total of $18,767 between October, 2013 and June,
2014.

The company required one of the employees - an
international student from China, aged 24 at the time and who spoke
limited English - to do an extended period of unpaid
work.

AIMG BQ required the student to do an 'internship' of 180
hours of productive work over a period of four months, with duties
ranging from administration and office cleaning to event organising
and magazine editing - before it started paying her
wages.

It was unlawful for the internship to be unpaid because
the student was performing productive work that was not a formal
part of her studies, a Master of Event Management degree at the
University of Technology in Sydney.

After the internship period, AIMG BQ paid the student an
unlawfully low flat rate of $50 a day, or just $6.56 an hour. In
total, the student was underpaid $8387.

Judge Altobelli found that AIMG BQ had exploited the
employee "in order to obtain a reduction in wage costs".

He said there was a need to send a "serious message" to
AIMG BQ and Jiang that "the Court will not countenance attempts to
disguise employment relationships as unpaid internships and thus
deny employees their required minimum entitlements".

Judge Altobelli noted a need to deter other employers from
similar conduct.

He referred to a report released by the Fair Work
Ombudsman in 2013 into the issue of unpaid work which found that
growing numbers of Australian employers are using unpaid work
schemes as an alternative to hiring paid staff.

"Employers should be in no doubt that they have a positive
obligation to ensure compliance with the obligations they owe to
their employees under the law," Judge Altobelli said.